The way my lease works, and I believe most leases, is the end value that you will owe is set at the time the vehicle is leased based on market research for depreciation of your particular vehicle. The reason it's way off in this case is research was not available on this vehicle because of it not having a lengthy history. Therefore they under estimated the decrease in value and you owe more than it's worth. This is the BAD part of a lease. If you are going to lease a vehicle, make sure you research the depreciation of the vehicle and make sure it has a pretty good history for holding it's value. Lease companies have been around long enough they usually get pretty close on this now days. They still keep it so they will make a little money in the end also though. Make an offer and if they don't take it wal-away, cause they are going to lose money on this thing also because of the sharp decrease in value, odds are they come back quite a bit lower than what they are at now. They may even take it for the lease buy out if you have the $6000 or so. If you decide to trade it, find a vehicle that has HIGH dealer incentives. Now is a good time to do so as the new model years are coming out soon and they want to reduce last years numbers on their lots. I know Ford currently has HIGH dealer incentives. If you do this the trading dealer will pay all yur costs for the lease buy out, and yes your monthly payment will be larger than if you jsut walked on the lot and bought the same vehicle, but the dealer incentives will help the payment a bit too. Good luck!!!!